Donald Trump is cartoonishly evil, to an extent that sometimes blows even my jaded, cynical mind. But he is not a “cancer on American democracy,” as many smart, thoughtful mainstream commentators think, including many of my left-leaning liberal friends whose opinions i value and respect. He is a REFLECTION of U.S. (racialized/gendered capitalist) democracy. The fact that so many white working class people can even conceive of him as an alternative (as opposed to not voting or voting third party) is a reflection on BOTH his main rival, a faithful representative of a neoliberal elite that has so thoroughly alienated working class voters of all genders and ethnicities, AND of how deeply and thoroughly patriarchy and white supremacy are ingrained in white working class consciousness, identity, and culture. To recognize one and not the other is to gloss over the problem at best, to contribute to it at worst. And the dominant electoralist discourse pushed by the Hillary campaign, which demonizes and ostracizes non-voting and third-party voting, certainly makes everything worse.

Like this:

The Slovenian “rock star” philosopher Slavoj Žižek recently stirred up social media by saying that despite being “horrified by him,” he would vote for Donald Trump if he could vote in the United States 2016 general election. The attention-seeking Žižek, who gained has gained a following among the academic left with his often counter-intuitive argumentation, has increasingly alienated many with his recent “heretical” Euro-centric statements, sometimes bordering on an apology of anti-refugee policies.

Žižek may be a guilty of many of the things his detractors charge, but: a) he never actually endorsed Trump; and b) his argument for “preferring” a Trump victory isn’t stupid, irrational, or fundamentally wrong-headed (as some of his other statements are). It’s just mistaken.